Leave Me Here In Pieces
by Out There Breathing
Summary: I wrote this just after I saw the Red Riding Hood movie. It is pure, corny fluff; nothing at all special. But I think it's cute.


"Vin, I'm not exactly in the mood to talk," Shiloh sighed, staring at his headboard rather than looking at me.

"Shi, you know I'm here for you if you'd just talk to me," I said, placing a comforting hand on his back.

He kept his arms wrapped around the pillow beneath his chin and his eyes drifted shut. "Did I say I wanted you to be here for me? Maybe I want to be alone, Vin. Did you think of that?"

I knew he was hurting, so even as he hurt me, I let it go. I let him have this shot at me, because he needed it and I needed him to be okay again. "Shi, you need someone. Miranda cheated on you, okay? She isn't worth your time, your effort, and definitely not your love. So get over her, please! You can do so much better, anyway."

"Just go, Vin. Just leave me here while my heart breaks into pieces, okay? Just leave me here in pieces. If you wanted to help, that's what you'd do."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" I shouted at Shiloh. "Look, babe, I know what Miranda did was fucked up and I know how badly she hurt you, but really, you've got to move on. It was one thing right after she cheated on you, but it's been over a month and a half now. You need to grow a pair and start getting yourself out there again!"

"I don't. Want to," he said, separating his words.

"You don't get the choice anymore," I said, wrapping both of my small hands around his well-toned upper arm and hauling him up to the best of my ability.

He growled unpleasantly, but stood himself up right. "I like you a little less every time you do something like this," he informed me.

"Like it matters," I huffed.

I grabbed his wrist to be sure he followed and led him down to the basement of the house where our friends, Ricki, Ty, and Devon all sat, staring at the large flat screen in front of them, yelling and cussing for the others to get out of the way because they couldn't make their shot. I rolled my eyes at them, even though I loved COD just as much as they did.

"Now, sit," I said, pushing Shiloh down onto the couch beside Ricki, who lit up when I did so. It was no big secret that she had the hugest crush on him. No, the secret was my enormous crush on him.

I looked around on the floor and found his controller, handing it to him so he could play. Ten minutes later, he glanced at me with the faintest outline of a smile on his lips. "See? I do know what's best for you," I teased. Even though I was beginning to think that I was what was best for him. But he only saw me as "You really are one of the guys." Yeah. One of the guys.

I snarled. "Because that's just what every girl always wants to hear," I sighed.

"Come on. You know I mean it in the best way. Besides, some guys like that in a girl. It's more comfortable to be around a girl who understands all this guy stuff than a girl who gets mad because you do all this guy stuff. And hey, you don't get to throw yourself a pity party just because you got me to smile," he said, grinning deviously at me.

I blushed like mad. "Shiloh Fernandez, first of all, nothing about a girl being 'one of the guys' is okay. Second, I don't recall any pity parties for myself. You were the one up in his bed sulking and depressed over a bad breakup that happened over a month ago."

The smile that had begun to grow on his lips vanished, just a whisper of the happiness he'd had before my reminder shook him back to reality. "Shi, I'm sorry. Hey, it really was over a month ago, though. Don't you think it's time to move on?"

His nostrils flared and his lips pressed shut. "Yeah, it is. I know." But after that, he stayed silent, barely playing the way he usually would. I frowned and picked up a controller.

I sat at my computer later that day, going back and forth between an article that was due for work the next day and my online college courses.

"Whatcha doin'?" Shiloh asked, sitting down on the couch next to me with a can of Red Bull in his hand.

"Work. School. Aiding my brain in shutting down." I typed furiously at my computer, trying to force myself to push out the last of my article so I could then finish my school work entirely.

"Hey, why don't you take a break? You look seriously burned out," he said, placing a hand over top of both of mine.

I stopped typing and looked up at him. "I'd love to, but I can't. All of this stuff is due tomorrow. The article, all these discussion questions for my class. If I don't post my answers, I don't get credit, and if I don't get credit, I run the risk of failing the course, which is absolutely not an option. If I don't finish the article, I run the risk of losing my job, then I don't have the money to help us pay for this place, and y'all will kick me out." I sounded winded, and that was just from the stress.

"Venice, you really think we'd kick you out? You should know better than that," he frowned.

"Well, if I don't have a job and I'm not making money, I won't be able to help pay for my share of the mortgage, I won't be able to pay my car bill or buy my share of the groceries or the utilities or electric bill or any of that stuff. Even if you didn't kick me out, all of you would have to pay more and if you couldn't, then we'd all suffer the consequences. So, if you don't mind, I've got work and school to finish, and I'd like to do that before I run out of time." I turned back to the screen of my laptop and continued typing as furiously as I had been before.

Shiloh took my laptop from its spot on my legs and shut it, placing it on the table. "You need a drink. Or three. Come on, would you relax, please? No one else is here right now, so you should be relaxing, not stressing yourself out."

"No one is here? I didn't even notice..."

"Really? Because they all walked right passed you to the front door. But maybe you were a little too focused on your work?" he suggested.

I closed my eyes and breathed a deep sigh and caved. "Okay. Okay. You're right."

"I always am," he said, standing and walking to the kitchen. He reached to the top of the fridge to grab my bottle of Schmirnoff. Vodka was the only alcohol I would drink.

He took a couple of shot glasses from the cabinet next to the fridge and filled them to the brim with an ounce of the burning liquid. He walked back into the room and handed me my shot glass, then set the bottle on the table. I quickly downed my shot and smiled as I felt the burn racing down my throat. I sighed with contentment.

"It's funny how much you love vodka," he commented, smiling.

"A lot of things in the world are funny. My love for vodka, however, is nothing to laugh at."

He rolled his eyes and filled my glass again, then his.

Half an hour, five shots and a nice buzz later, I decided I wanted to go take a nice, relaxing bubble bath. I was supposed to be relaxing anyway, wasn't I?

"I'll be down in about an hour," I told Shiloh as I headed up the stairs for the bathroom I shared with Ricki. If we'd shared with any of the boys, they probably would've died at the sight of any of our feminine products.

The house the five of us shared was a decent size, although it only had three room. But we'd redone both the attic and the pool house as bedrooms. Now, Ricki, her twin, Devon, and myself all had the bedrooms because we'd decided to buy the house together, initially.

Then Shiloh signed on, saying we'd always said it would be fun to live together, so we should give it a shot. He stayed in the pool house out back. He got all the privacy in the world, and it was possibly the coolest pool house ever to be redecorated.

Last was Ty, my adopted brother. It was always fun to see peoples' reaction to finding out we were brother and sister, because we both always forget to leave out the "adopted" part. They don't understand because he's so tall and dark and I'm so small and light. He got the attic, which turned out to be just as cool at the pool house, and still more privacy than all of the bedrooms.

I smiled at the thought of my "little" brother as I grabbed a towel from the linen closet next to the bathroom. I left the towel on the counter and closed the door while I undressed. I showered first, so I wouldn't be sitting in my own yuck while I was relaxing in the bath portion of my night.

When I finished, I reached for the towel and wrapped it around myself. I turned on the water to run the bath while I sought out my favorite bubble bath. It was scented and had soft beads of something-or-other to calm you and make your skin silky soft and smooth. When the water was done running, I dumped in a small handful, swirled them around a bit with my hand, and waited for the bubbles to fill the tub.

I stepped in and lowered myself comfortably into the mass of bubbles until all that could be seen of me was my head. I left my towel on the seat of the toilet and let my head fall back a bit.

At the door, there was a small knock. "Shiloh?"

"Yeah, it's me," he said through the door.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing. I just felt like coming in because I'm bored and lonely down there," he responded.

"Well...yeah, okay. That's fine. Come on."

He opened the door with an innocent smile for me. "Just because you're relaxing doesn't mean you can't have company, does it?"

"No, I guess not."

He came and sat on the edge of the tub. "I wanted to thank you for earlier. I know you've done that plenty of times before, but it really sank in today. So, thanks. I needed that."

I shook my head lightly, trying to avoid having my hair fall out of the loose bun I'd put it in. "No need to thank me. It was starting to get kinda hard to watch you like that. I mean, it was understandable at first, but the longer you were like that, the worse I felt for you."

"So you did it out of pity?" he questioned.

"I did it because you deserve to be happy," I countered.

He kind of gave a short, almost imperceptible nod, then took hold of one of the feet I'd poked out of the water in an attempt to stretch my leg out. He started to push the pad of his thumb up the middle of my foot and I hummed appreciatively.

"You're really good at that," I told him as I let my eyes drift shut.

"I used to rub my moms' feet all the time. Even when she had cancer. That's when she needed it the most, so I'd do it almost non-stop. I remember once, the doctor made me stop because I'd made my thumb bleed."

"How did you do that?"

"Like I said, I would rub her feet non-stop, wanting to keep her comfortable in some way. I did it so much so often that I ended up with these awful, nasty callouses on my thumbs that turned to blisters that ended up bleeding. On that particular day, at least."

"That's gross. Don't bleed on my feet, please," I said, wrinkling my nose.

He laughed. "I'm not planning on it."

"Things don't always go as planned," I pointed out. "Well, I guess they do for you, Mr. Big-Shot-Movie-Star."

The tips of his ears reddened. "I'm no movie star, Vin."

I scoffed. "Oh please, Shiloh. You're amazing at what you do, and you're well on your way to being the next Brad Pitt." I paused to contemplate what I'd just said. "Except, I don't find Brad Pitt all that attractive, so let's go with Johnny Depp, instead. He's hot, so someone hot like you should be the next him, right?"

"Oh, so you find me hot?" he smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "What girl in America doesn't?"'

"The lesbians," he said point-blank.

"That's a smartass answer and you know it," I laughed.

"It may be, but let's get back to the topic of you thinking I'm hot. Now, how long have you found yourself dying for my affection?" he teased.

"Oh, get over yourself," I laughed. I didn't feel comfortable playing along with the truth when he thought it was just a game.

"No, really. Answer my question," he said, leaning in, his fingers no longer working magic against the rougher skin of my foot.

I leaned in. "Why do you think I have an answer to that?"

"Because Ty told me. Told me about how much you like me. That you think you might love me. Granted that was right around the time I broke things off with Miranda, so I didn't hold much to it then, but I've been paying attention to you and how you act around me, and I think Ty is right. He is your brother after all."

I felt my face heat up, and our faces were getting closer. "I think it's just your inflated ego playing tricks on you. Maybe you've gotten a little too conceited."

"No, I don't think that's it." With each exchange between us, we came a little bit closer.

"Tell me, then, what makes you think that I'm so in love with you?"

"Well, why don't you just prove to me if you aren't?"

"How would I-" He cut me off by crashing his lips into mine. I was caught so off guard that I gasped. I felt him smile against my lips to this reaction. I felt him begin to pull away because I hadn't responded, so I quickly laced my fingers around the back of his neck and kissed back. He responded by removing his hands from my foot and replacing them on either side of my face and deepening the kiss. I was too into what was happening to care that his hands had just been touching my feet. They were clean now, anyway.

"I'd say that's proof enough," he said when he pulled away, breathing heavily.

I caught my breath and sank further into the water so the now-thin layer of bubbles would continue to cover my assets. "Why don't you let me get out and put on some clothes, then we can talk about that?" I suggested.

"What is there to talk about? You think you love me, and when I think about everything with you, I know I love you, so that can only leave us one place: together."

"How could you possibly know, after thinking about it for only a month, that you love me? Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered, and I want nothing more than to believe you, but it's a little hard to in such a short span of time."

"But you're forgetting how long I've known you, Vin. All the years I've had to think through. I've known you since we were in kindergarten; that's almost two decades of knowing each other. And what with your beautiful, long, wavy brown hair," he began, slowly taking my still-damp hair out of its bun, "and those piercing blue eyes," he looked me straight in the eyes, "and that amazing, breath-taking kiss we just shared, how could I not love you?"

"You stole those words from somewhere, I know you did," I said breathlessly.

"Nope, I've just watched one-too-many chick flicks with you. I've caught on, taken notes, picked up pointers."

"Let me get dressed," I said again.

He nodded and left me to myself, dazed and in complete bliss. I quickly dried and dressed, let the water drain out of the tub, and left the bathroom to find Shiloh.

I looked around downstairs, but he wasn't there, so I went out to the pool house, and I found him lying down in his bed, holding a picture of me between his fingers. "So you weren't just saying those things?" I asked from the doorway.

He looked up and smiled when he saw me. "No, I wasn't. Venice, I've never been so sure about how I felt before. I'm definitely in love with you, and I'm pretty sure you're in love with me, too."

"I know I'm in love with you, too."

"So then, we're together?" he assumed.

I took a few steps into the room toward him. "If we're together, why aren't you pulling me into that bed with you?" I said with a mischievous grin.

He grinned, running his hands through his newly cut hair. I loved it even more than the long hair he'd had for so long. This style suited him so much better.

He grabbed my wrist and yanked me into his arms, kissing me. "See? Now where would we be if I'd left you alone earlier?" I asked him, momentarily pulling my lips from his.

"Nowhere near as fun as this."


End file.
